Obama is going to start the year with a fight over gun control

Obama
speaks about gun violence at a fundraiser for Patty Murray in
Seattle.Thomson
Reuters

President Barack Obama is slated Monday to finalize a set of new
executive actions tightening the nation's gun laws, making his
first order of business in 2016 a clear signal the president in
his final year doesn't intend to go quietly.

At a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director
James Comey and other top law enforcement officials Obama is
expected to sign off on a package of proposals aimed at curbing
gun violence and cracking down on unregulated gun sales.

At the top of the list is an effort to expand background checks
on gun sales by forcing more sellers to register as federally
licensed gun dealers. The changes would be aimed at some
unregistered sellers who skirt the background check laws by
selling at gun shows, online or informal settings. Other moves
being considered include improving reporting of lost and stolen
weapons and beefing up inspections of licensed dealers, according
to a person familiar with the plans who would not be named
discussing proposals before they are finalized.

The package includes measures this White House has long
considered but not completed, mindful of the legal fight sure to
follow as well as the potential for political backlash for some
fellow Democrats.

But after a steady string of mass shootings and with the clock on
his tenure ticking down, Obama appears primed to push further
than he has in the past.

"We definitely think there are things he can do," said Dan Gross,
president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which
advocates for expanding background checks. Gross says his recent
conversations with White House aides have left him hopeful.

"It's very clear that the White House is feeling emboldened," he
said.

Even before the president's formal announcement, Republicans were
registering their opposition.

"The president is at minimum subverting the legislative branch,
and potentially overturning its will," House Speaker Paul Ryan,
R-Wisc., said in a statement Monday.

President
Barack Obama waves as he walks with his daughter Malia Obama
across the South Lawn on return to the White House in Washington,
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016, after their family vacation in
Hawaii.Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Photo

Obama announced the meeting with Lynch in his weekly address from
his Hawaii holiday vacation. On Thursday, he'll take his argument
to prime time, participating in a town hall discussion of gun
violence on CNN. He's slated to make his case for changes in his
State of the Union address on Jan. 12.

The high-profile rollout reflects a White House continuing to
look for ways to wrap up unfinished business, despite an
uncooperative Congress.

After all but ignoring the issue in his first term, Obama changed
course after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in
December 2012. Nevertheless, the president failed to push a
package of gun measures through Congress, including one expanding
background checks.

At the same time, Obama took nearly two dozen executive actions
to tighten gun laws, but left a major expansion of background
checks out of the mix.

But after the shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon
in October, a weary and angry Obama ordered his staff to redouble
the effort to look for ways to work around Congress.

Under current law, federally licensed firearms dealers are
required to seek background checks on potential firearm
purchasers. But advocacy groups say many sellers are currently
exempt from having to register, increasing the chance of sales to
customers prohibited by law from purchasing a gun.

The administration is expected to reclassify some of those
dealers using a mix of criteria, such as the number and frequency
of guns sold, whether sellers profit off sales, whether they
advertise, rent space or tables at gun shows and pay taxes. White
House officials have not yet disclosed the details of the
proposal.

Obama's plans immediately set off a political debate on the
presidential campaign trail, both over the policy and whether the
president has the authority to make it.

Democrat Hillary Clinton, who has already proposed an executive
action to close the gun show loophole, cheered Obama's plans.

Former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton.REUTERS/Jim
Young

"I am absolutely convinced we can have gun safety measures
consistent with the Constitution," she said during a presidential
campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire. "I will take on that
fight. I'm very hopeful and excited that the president is going
to take some action with executive action in the next week or two
... but if it's a Republican who walks into the White House
within the first day, the executive orders will be reversed."

Rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, told
ABC's "This Week" he wished Congress could find consensus but
added the move was the "right thing to do."

Republicans candidates rejected the proposals, including those
who have backed some gun control measures in the past.

"This president is a petulant child," New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie said Sunday on "Fox News Sunday." ''The fact is if he
wants to make changes to these laws, go to Congress and convince
the Congress that they're necessary. But this is going to be
another illegal executive action which I'm sure will be rejected
by the courts."

"I don't like changing anything," Donald Trump said on CBS' "Face
the Nation." ''Right now, they have plenty of rules and
regulations."